NZ stocks: Sharemarket crawls higher on slim liquidity

12.40pm

The New Zealand sharemarket crawled higher this morning in a session with light turnover and slim on corporate news.

Gains in the share prices of Telecom, Carter Holt Harvey (CHH) and Contact Energy helped pull the benchmark NZSX-50 index up 5.34 points to 2698.81.

Telecom shares were up 2c at 588, CHH shares gained 1c to 213, and Contact shares rose 1c to 592.

So far today, $8.5 million worth of Telecom shares had changed hands, representing about 35 per cent of the market's $24.4m turnover.

Among the 119 stocks traded were 37 rises and 23 falls.

The NZSX-All capital index was up 1.70 points at 905.54.

Hamilton Hindin Greene broker Grant Williamson said there was little liquidity to trading on NZX this morning.

"Once again it is very quiet. There's no real volume to speak of," Mr Williamson told NZPA.

The rise in Contact shares came as the market speculates when majority shareholder US-based Edison Mission Energy will reveal details of the proposed sale of its stake.

"There's a bit of speculation on the price...but not on much volume," he said.

CHH shares were up after the wood products company yesterday said it had been cleared of predatory pricing by the London-based Privy Council, overruling an earlier High Court decision.

"There quarterly result is not far away so it could be a bit of buying ahead of that," Mr Williamson said.

After turning in a good performance yesterday, shares in carpet maker Feltex failed to fire, remaining unchanged at 171.

Michael Hill International slipped 1c to 616 after its recent run up.

The jeweller had reported a increase in annual same-store sales earlier this week, led by strong growth in the Australian market.

Promina shed all of yesterday's gains, dropping 4c to 428.

Retailer Smiths City Group said it was would finish trading on the alternative exchange at market's close today, joining NZX's main board on Monday. Its shares were unchanged at 80c.

"It's a good success story (for Smiths City)... fundamentally it looks to be good value and its smaller than most of the other retailers."

Other stocks on the move included: AMP up 2c at 697, Auckland International Airport up 1c at 676, DB Breweries up 9c at 795, Kirkcaldie & Stains down 4c at 221, Mr Chips up 10c at 125, Restaurant Brands up 1c at 128, Steel & Tube up 1c at 420, and The Warehouse up 2c at 407.

- NZPA